The communication industry is institutionalizing usage based billing for broadband connections. For example, a communications service provider may charge a base fee for a certain level of service and charge extra fees for usage above a threshold. Usage based billing is a change from flat fee billing and an “all you can consume” type of service model. Service providers are implementing customized billing services using usage based models. Vendors are marketing systems to implement usage based billing. Certain approaches rely on external devices, such as deep packet inspection (DPI) devices and other monitoring devices. The devices may need to be tuned using deployed transport network technology (e.g., digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) technology, frame relay technology, Ethernet technology, worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMax) technology, etc.), by network topology/hierarchy or both. Providing network usage by more than one method may improve the reliability and accuracy of network usage monitoring.